From the New York Times bestselling author of The Guest Room comes a spine-tingling novel of lies, loss, and buried desire—the mesmerizing story of a wife and mother who vanishes from her bed late one night.

When Annalee Ahlberg goes missing, her children fear the worst. Annalee is a sleepwalker whose affliction manifests in ways both bizarre and devastating. Once, she merely destroyed the hydrangeas in front of her Vermont home. More terrifying was the night her older daughter, Lianna, pulled her back from the precipice of the Gale River bridge. The morning of Annalee's disappearance, a search party combs the nearby woods. Annalee's husband, Warren, flies home from a business trip. Lianna is questioned by a young, hazel-eyed detective. And her little sister, Paige, takes to swimming the Gale to look for clues. When the police discover a small swatch of fabric, a nightshirt, ripped and hanging from a tree branch, it seems certain Annalee is dead, but Gavin Rikert, the hazel-eyed detective, continues to call, continues to stop by the Ahlbergs' Victorian home. As Lianna peels back the layers of mystery surrounding Annalee's disappearance, she finds herself drawn to Gavin, but she must ask herself: Why does the detective know so much about her mother? Why did Annalee leave her bed only when her father was away? And if she really died while sleepwalking, where was the body? Conjuring the strange and mysterious world of parasomnia, a place somewhere between dreaming and wakefulness, The Sleepwalker is a masterful novel from one of our most treasured storytellers.

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Editorial Reviews

Review

A New York Times Bestseller

"The Sleepwalker is more than a mystery: it's a beautiful, wrenching novel of family secrets and the enigmas that link husbands and wives and lovers. And then that ending? Devastating and perfect." —Harlan Coben

"Great mystery writers, like great magicians, have the ability to hide the truth that's right before your eyes. Bestselling novelist Chris Bohjalian is at the full power of his literary legerdemain in his newest book. . . . The Sleepwalker is Bohjalian at his best: a creepily compelling topic and an illusionist's skill at tightening the tension. This is a novel worth losing sleep over." —USA Today

"Sex, secrets and the mysteries of sleep: These are the provocative ingredients in Chris Bohjalian's spooky thriller The Sleepwalker. It's a dark, Hitchcockian novel. . . . Trust me, you will not be able to stop thinking about it days after you finish reading this book." —The Washington Post

"After a chronic sleepwalker goes missing, the general consensus is accidental death. But nothing is what it seems in this gripping mystery." —Cosmopolitan

"One night when her professor husband is out of town, and while her teenage daughters sleep in their rooms, Annalee Ahlberg walks out her front door and heads toward the river. She is never seen again. . . . Bohjalian raises essential questions of identity and heredity, sexuality and desire, bringing the Ahlberg family conundrum into focus with a didn’t-see-that-one-coming powerhouse ending." —Booklist

"This stylish fusion of mystery and domestic thriller from Bohjalian explores the aftermath of the inexplicable disappearance of a woman prone to sleepwalking. . . . [The Sleepwalker is] powered by brilliantly rendered characters, an intriguing topic (parasomnia) and a darkly lyrical narrative that captures the melancholic tone of autumn in New England perfectly." —Publishers Weekly

"Sleepwalking inspires a hard-to-put-down story that also mixes sex and a mystery in a polished package. . . . Bohjalian is a gifted writer. . . . [He] weaves in hints, a red herring or two and a backstory that will leave readers with competing theories about who Annalee was and how that might have determined her fate. . . . Bohjalian is on top of his already stellar game with The Sleepwalker." —St. Louis Post-Dispatch

"This is Bohjalian at his very best." —The Seattle Times

"Chris Bohjalian savors the experience of getting behind his characters' masks, deep into their psyches, such that readers know far more about why the people in his novels do what they do than the characters themselves know. . . . Bohjalian's newest novel, The Sleepwalker, is one of his most skillfully plotted. . . .An increasingly gripping tale layered with grave moral dilemmas." —The Portland Press Herald

"A perfectly crafted surprise ending. . . . Bohjalian succeeds in making us accomplices in a dark world we never knew existed." —Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

"Sex, secrets and the mysteries of sleep: These are the provocative ingredients in Chris Bohjalian's spooky thriller The Sleepwalker. It's a dark, Hitchcockian novel. . . that ends with a surprising and satisfying twist. It was so deliciously dark that I reread The Sleepwalker to pick up on all the subtle clues this clever novelist dropped with poetically perfect precision throughout." —Houston Chronicle

"The kind of mystery that builds to a startling climax, the kind that makes the reader wonder how such a trick was pulled off. . . . Bohjalian does a masterful job." —The Boston Globe

About the Author

CHRIS BOHJALIAN is the author of eighteen books, including The Guest Room, Close Your Eyes, Hold Hands, The Sandcastle Girls, Skeletons at the Feast, The Double Bind and Midwives, which was a number one New York Times bestseller and a selection of Oprah's Book Club. His work has been translated into more than thirty languages, and three of his novels have become movies (Secrets of Eden, Midwives and Past the Bleachers).

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Imagine a mountain. A boulder is on the top. The wind and rain eventually--but slowly--push the boulder inch by inch to the crest. And then gradually it begins to tumble down that mountain...ever so slowly at first and then it picks up an inexorable amount of speed until it comes crashing to the bottom. That crash is the reader finishing this book. And the sudden wind that just blew over the boulder at the bottom of the mountain? Those are the goosebumps on the reader's arm.

"The Sleepwalker" tells the story of a typical, but accomplished, woman, Annalee Ahlberg. Married with two daughters and a successful career as an architect, Annalee could be anyone--except she sleepwalks. And her sleepwalking has an unusual, if not creepy, undercurrent. One night, Annalee simply vanishes from her home in a small town in Vermont. Author Chris Bohjalian expertly tells this tale that morphs from a simple story about a grieving family into a thriller laced with lies, guile, sex and mystery.

The book starts out VERY slowly. Repeat: very slowly. I imagine there are some readers who give up. Don't be one of them. And pay attention. There are important clues embedded in this somewhat mundane beginning. But all of this is absolutely required as fuel for the powerful blast that is to come. Stick with it, and you will be richly rewarded. (See goosebumps above.)

Hint: Read the Kindle Single "The Premonition" first. It's a short story prequel to "The Sleepwalker" and offers great insight into the characters' lives before the events of the novel.

I have read several other books by Chris Bojahlian, so I expected a well written series of events. Also, I am interested in the scientific aspects of sleepwalking. The suspense continued until the end with many possibilities for resolution. I felt that the conclusion was rushed, but maybe that was the author's style,after presenting the reader so many clues. Still one of my go-to writers. Gritty, realistic, and satisfying books.

At first I wondered where this was going but the more I read the more I liked it. It would make a great little movie if Hollywood was still making movies with storylines. Maybe HBO or FX or even the BBC could adapt it for Cable TV

This is one of my favorite authors. I love the style of writing, I love the way the characters are drawn out. I love how the story is so real you can actually see the pictures in your mind. While all those things were true in this novel as well, I just never connected with characters. I would however definitely recommend it.

Wow I didn't anticipate the ending. I kept wondering how it would end but I never guessed even remotely close. A great story that made me question whether I'm even that good of a reader or not! How did I not see it coming?

I did not see the ending coming, which I love! I'm a Bohjalian fan, so was excited to see this book. He always brings interesting charachters and this book was no exception. There were some dark twists but in the end it's just profoundly sad and makes you re-consider everything that lead to that point and the implications for the charachters for the rest of their lives. Living with guilt and regret and it's after effects.